Page 25 - Insurance Times July 2019

WILL MOSQUITO

BITES BITE THE

POLICYHOLDERS?

Abstract
The Supreme Court has very recently decided an important question of law that death due to malaria inflicted by
mosquito bite is not an accident which will have a wide implication on accident claims handling by insurance companies.
The Apex Court in this case has differentiated the accident from disease and held that disease in its natural course
does not come under accident unless it is proximately caused by accident as it is not unnatural, unforeseen or out of
a sudden occurrence.
The Court drew the conclusion that accident is an antithesis of disease and disease excludes accident.
The Apex Court decision though has far reaching consequences in dealing with accidental claims and will certainly
open the floodgates of accidental claims litigations. The discussion and inferences drawn on distinction between 'disease'
and 'accident' has shed some light on the complex issues of 'accident' and 'disease', and discussed the circumstances
under which a disease becomes an accident.

he Supreme Court has very recently decided an accident claims handling by insurance companies.
T important question of law that death due to In Civil Appeal No 2614 of 2019, The Branch Manager,
malaria inflicted by mosquito bite is not an
accident which will have a wide repercussion on
National Insurance Co. Ltd. v Mousumi Bhattacharjee & Ors,
decided on 26.03.2019, the sole and lone question before
About the author the Apex Court was whether a death due to malaria
occasioned by a mosquito bite in Mozambique, constituted
Ravi Ranjan Kumar Rana a death due to accident.
Senior Manager in Claims Department
HDFC Ergo General Insurance
The present Special Leave Petition No. 4297 of 2017 arose
The Insurance Times, July 2019 25